Read Game Alive: A Science Fiction Adventure Novel for Free Online Page B

lacrosse stick inspired sling, wondering if it would even work. “You think I’m just automatically some kind of wicked shot with this thing?”
    “Listen!” It was Kari, who had grabbed Des by the arm and wore a look of alarm. Everyone held their breath, even Ixus Rites where he lay on the stretcher. Jake strained his ears for the sound that had alerted Kari, but heard nothing at first. On their right, the roadside rose up in a high embankment topped by patches of untended, wild grass. Without warning, five enormous shapes appeared on that ridge line, dark muzzles nosing forward through the long blades of grass.
    The dread wolves bared their dripping fangs and the largest of them threw back its head to roar an unmistakable, predatory challenge.
    “Get back!” shouted Jake. He had put away his sword, but drew it again now in one smooth motion. The blade sang metallically as he freed it from the leather scabbard, already striding forward to meet the snarling dread wolves. From the corner of his eye, he saw Des fit a medium-sized stone into the netted cup of his short staff and step back to swing.
    Des wound up, keeping his eye locked on one of the nearest of the five dread wolves. He wanted to hit it right between the eyes. He swung his sling, letting fly the stone he’d picked up from the roadside. The fist-sized chunk of rock hissed as it cut through the air, Des’s aim deadly true. The stone struck the lean and monstrous wolf square in the forehead, dazing the creature but not downing it. It shook itself and roared angrily.
    Jake waved his friend’s back, shouting at Des and Kari to stay behind him. They were both clad in light-weight garments, hardly any armor at all. They were going to run out of life points pretty quickly unless Jake took the brunt of the battle on himself.
    “Keep shooting,” he yelled over his shoulder to Des. “And Kari, if you can think of any kind of attack spells that would be nice!”
    “That’s Lady Alista,” Kari retorted shortly, emphasizing the words with a short burst of crackling electricity that discharged from the ruby atop her onyx staff.
    Jake could spare no further thought for his friends. Flinging himself into the faces of the five roaring dread wolves, he swung his sword in a long arc. Steel bit deeply into the side of the nearest of the monsters. It howled, jaws snapping at Jake’s arm. He deflected the lunging head with his buckler, a ten-inch wide miniature shield strapped to his left forearm. Another wolf leapt into the air, trying to clamp down its jaws on his side just beneath the shoulder. The savage teeth skidded over his chainmail armor with a piercing ring, and the dread wolf whimpered as it shot past without causing Jake injury. The word Miss appeared over Jake’s head in hazy, yellow letters.
    Swinging again, Jake struck a third creature that had started to dart past. Since he wore the strongest armor, he wanted the dread wolves all to focus on him rather than the others. His armor would protect him. Jake knew if he could hit each one, the AI directing the wolves should focus all of their retaliatory attacks on him. He nicked the fourth wolf with the tip of his blade, but the fifth slipped by him and launched itself snarling through the air toward Kari and Des.
    “Look out,” shouted Jake. “That one got past me!” He didn’t have a chance to look back and see how they did. Swinging his buckler, Jake blocked another attack from one of the four wolves remaining around him. A red -25 appeared over his head. His block had only been partially successful.
    A loud humming sound came from behind him, and Jake heard the escaped dread wolf yelp in surprised pain. Des must have flung another rock with that peculiar sling of his. He heard sizzling sounds coming from Kari’s staff as well, and guessed his friends were doing just fine.
    Jake lunged at the nearest dread wolf, swinging his sword around in a brutal arc. The blade sliced a deep gash into the wolf’s